Persecuted Christian’s baby disabled after giving birth in shackles

Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese Christian woman who was imprisoned for refusing to recant her faith and become a Muslim, has been talking about her experiences in jail, where she gave birth to her second child whilst her legs were held in shackles.

Speaking to CNN, Meriam, 27, stated that she feared her child might be disabled. “Something has happened to the baby … I don’t know in the future whether she’ll need support to walk or not.”

Meriam explained: “I gave birth chained. Not cuffs, but chains on my legs. I couldn’t open my legs, so the women had to lift me off the table. I wasn’t attached to the table.”

The past few months have been momentous ones for Meriam. She hit media headlines around the world, when one of her relatives filed a criminal complaint against her for marrying a Christian, as it was thought she was a Muslim. Meriam was charged with adultery, because it’s illegal for a Muslim woman to marry a Christian in Sudan, as well as apostasy. She was given the death penalty and sentenced to receive 100 lashes, despite the fact she was heavily pregnant.

After an international outcry, the Sudanese Government agreed to free her, only to re-arrest her for travelling with supposedly falsified travel documents. At the time of writing, Meriam was awaiting the outcome of those charges, and was resident in the US Embassy in Sudan, alongside her husband – American citizen, Daniel Wani – and their two children.